Iconography 101, continued…

by abbamoses

St. Panteleimon, nearer completion

In an earlier post I reported on our parish’s iconography class and posted a snapshot of an icon in process.

Here’s an updated snapshot from our most recent class. I should note that our teacher did the gilding, which still seems like an occult art to me.

Remaining to do: some final highlighting on the face; halo; lettering.

Our teacher reminds us that iconography is not about expressing ourselves, that we should do our best to follow traditional models. But, she adds parenthetically, each person’s icons will have their own characteristic look. It’s been interesting to see how this works out: I try as well as I can to copy my model, but I can see that my own version has come out differently.

Note: these photos were taken with a cell phone camera under fluorescent lights, which gives them a bit of a mug-shot look. When the thing is done, I’ll try to post a higher-quality photo.